Dive Dive Dive
DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!!
I read an article with the same title in a Dons fanzine I picked up at our last visit to Pittodrie a couple of weeks ago. They were highlighting how Dundee seem to get away with murder as far as diving is concerned, and I was grateful to find that I wasn't alone in having this opinion.
At Dens when we lost 3-1 I though some of their football was a delight to watch but was still disgusted by the way they fall about all over the place under the slightest touch. The more galling thing was that the only player booked for diving on the night was Stephen Hammell, obviously the ref was bedazzled by the talents of Carranza, Caballero etc to notice their antics. As The Red Final said, Bonnetti keeps moaning about the refs and how they react to his team, but from what I can see they are well protected by the refs and don't get what they deserve.
Having got the Dundee bit out of my system the whole subject of "diving" is a minefield for referees if you ask me. Take that idiot Willie Young who booked four players for a recent game at Easter Road, which saw John O'Neill sent off for one of them, then at Pittodrie when he refereed our game up there it didn't seem to be an offence of any kind. He had the opportunity to book Young, Dadi and Adams for diving but on each occasion just waved the incident away. Some of these looked as bad as the incidents he booked people for only a week or two before.
This is why I think it is a minefield, once you set the precedent it has to be followed through. But as Young showed they don't seem to know what a dive actually is! Is it a yellow card when there is contact but the player makes a meal of it, or is it only when the player actually goes down without contact? I don't think they know themselves! I also heard an idea on Radio Scotland that diving should lead to an automatic red card, this is a recipe for disaster looking at some of the examples we have seen recently. I can only see this leading to appeals against cards lining up at the SFA.
Then of course there is Sellick! It was a disgraceful decision in Turin that robbed them of another of their "historic" results in Europe. Of course there was no regard given to the shocking decision that saw them get a penalty in the same game. O'Neill came out and blasted "cheats" after the first game in Juventus, but I have yet to hear him condemn Maloney and Sutton for the blatant dives that led to goals at Fir Park and McDiarmid Park. It would be nice, in an ideal world if managers could be consistent in their opinions when things go for and against them rather than the idiotic ramblings when they get emotional and upset.
Graham Barnstaple.
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